Illini Steal Road Win At Minnesota: NCAA Tournament Still In Sight.

The theme of the Illini season to this point has been repetition. Becoming a point of humor for bloggers and writers like myself. We theme our write ups with "Groundhog Day"  "Same Song Different Chorus" or in my case writing the post game before the game has even been played. Bloggers have been glib about the predictability of the Illini, and fans have been ripping their hair out.

The team can't win when its not shooting the three pointer well, it can't win on the road, it can't get to the free throw line, it can't play in transistion. It can't this, it can't that, and to make it all the worse suddenly two of the best players, Demetri McCamey and DJ Richardson, can't score.

Well tonight was about breaking all of those trends, it was a message to the bloggers and the fans that yes, there is more to this team than you may think.

The Illini won only their second Big Ten road game of the season, and against a team that was equally desperate for a victory. But what is perhaps even more impressive is the manner that the Illini won this game, overcoming an absolutely awful shooting night. The Illini would end up with a respectable 39% from the field, but for long stretches were shooting sub 33%, and even finished the game with just 25% from beyond the three point line.

Winning without the three pointer is as rare as a dodo for this team, but made up for it by playing with an intensity not seen in many of their other road losses. Getting eleven steals and four blocks, and driving into the teeth of a very strong Minnesota front line, drawing fouls and getting to the line.The Illini were way over their season average from the foul line, hitting 23 of 27 free throw attempts, making their last 11 straight, which would seal the game.

Speaking of breaking trends, no one broke them quite as definitively as Demetri McCamey did tonight. Slumping badly heading into tonight's game, Demetri was benched to start the game, along with Mike Tisdale and Jereme Richmond. The story for the season has always been that the Illini will go as far as DMAC takes them, and tonight he took them to success. 17 points to lead the team, 4 assists 3 rebounds and 3 steals. The team's leader on the floor broke his slump with authority tonight. Nobody is happier for his success than me, because as for all his struggling this season, it has never been for lack of effort and expectations.

Mike Davis, another Illini player who has been the subject of heaps of criticism over his career, stepped up big, once again tonight, with 17 points and 9 boards. The man is in the middle of a pretty good stretch in Big Ten play right now, going into double figures in five of his last six games. No one has pointed out how well he has played lately, but it needs to be done, because he putting together a pretty damn good season.

This is a win that changes a lot of the math for this Illini team's success. We had assumed that the Illini would lose all of their remaining road games, at Purdue, Ohio State and Michigan State, and would have to sweep their home games to finish .500 in conference. This win makes the margin of error that much wider for the Illini getting into the tournament this year. Winning this game will hopefully keep me from fretting over who wins what mid-major conference tournament this year.

Do we ascribe this win to the benching of Demetri? Maybe. I just hope that for the rest of the season Bruce Weber doesn't have to do anything like this again to get this kind of production. This game was a statement for Weber as much as it was any of the players. He had the team push the tempo, streaking down the court on missed shots and playing very very aggressively. The Illini were anything but tentative tonight, and were even maybe too aggressive, as the Illini committed 12 turnovers. I hope the trends that began tonight will continue for the rest of the season. Going aggressive to the hoop, pushing the tempo and not shying away from contact. We will find out against Purdue though.